IBM attempts to build secure cloud for Air Force

The world's largest computer services provider will build a hosted service that will hold the agency's data and automate its network, it said Thursday.

Our goal is to demonstrate how cloud computing can be a tool to enable our Air Force to manage, monitor, and secure the information flowing through our network,  said Lieutenant General William Lord, chief information officer and chief of Warfighting Integration for the U.S. Air Force.

The Air Force's system will have extra layers of security and analytics to detect against potential threats and identify unauthorized access.

Improving protection for the technology may help IBM win more contracts in the public sector, which contributes more than 15 percent of the company's almost $100 billion in sales and was the only unit to increase revenue last year.

We examined the expertise of IBM's commercial performance in cloud computing and asked them to develop an architecture that could lead to improved performance within the Air Force environment to improve all operational, analytical, and security capabilities, Lord added.

President Barack Obama's latest budget, which includes $80 billion for federal technology spending, calls for use of cloud computing to help curb costs.

The company has 10 months to create and test the model.The terms of the deal were not disclosed .

Global spending on cloud computing will more than double to $44.2 billion in the next three years, according to researcher IDC.